Before considering our response to the unknowable nature of Jesus’ return, it will be helpful to say something regarding the men in the field and the women at the grinding mill. In many Charismatic groups, Christians are taught about a secret rapture to come, a day when Christian believers will be taken up into the air while unbelievers remain behind on earth. One of the passages that is often used to defend this teaching is the two verses from Matthew 24:40–41 regarding the men in the field and the women at the hand mill.
In response, we must remember that Jesus is giving an example to emphasize the unexpected nature of his return. He is not focusing so much on a division between believer and unbeliever but on the suddenness of his return. He wants us to realize that no one knows when the Son of Man will come back. And so just as people were busy with ordinary things in the days of Noah, so also people will be busy with ordinary things when Christ returns. Men working in the field, women grinding at the mill.
Added to that, if you really want to push this analogy and claim some kind of rapture, then the question becomes, Do you really want to be taken? Look at the comparison that Jesus makes. He begins with Noah. He and his family were protected safe in the ark whereas everyone else was swept away, taken in the flood waters, so to speak. If that analogy establishes the pattern, then to be taken is to be destroyed; you actually want to be left behind.
Rapture ideas aside, we do not know when Christ will return. I do not know; you do not know; the YouTube preacher certainly does not know. It will be unexpected; we will all be surprised.
40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.